Tea Nirvana

Teavana is definitely a good name for the place. Once you get in there you never leave…or want to! Hailey just LOVES their Pineapple Kona Pop & Blueberry Bliss Rooibos Iced Tea…they have this blend in the stores right now. Needless to say EVERY time we go to the mall we have to stop there and have some. This stuff tastes like juice instead of tea and its waaaayyy healthier.

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Mommy broke down and bought this mix today in addition to the green tea one I bought the other day. I’m not big on hot drinks, but I do make sure we have iced tea in the fridge at all times. I had already been mixing bagged teas at home for different flavors and variety.  I probably should have known better than to stop in the store. I don’t know about you, but I was clueless to the loose leaf tea. All of them smell awesome! It is so hard to pick just one and I’m sure that’s what they’re counting on.

I don’t know if I could back to just plain ole tea again…yikes! BTW…this is a totally free endorsement for those evil (but really nice) folks at Teavana.

How to make the perfect iced tea:

Tea has all kinds of health benefits…it just depends on which kinds of tea you use. To reap the most benefits you need to use the least processed version, which is loose leaf tea. The normal tea you think of is made from tea bags that contain “tea dust” rather than whole leaves. This kind of tea drastically reduces the health benefits and flavor.

Making homemade iced tea is very similar to making hot tea, but there are a few differences. Follow these steps on how to make great tasting gourmet iced tea:

1.      Double the amount of loose tea that you would use for hot tea (I made a half gallon with the perfect tea maker and used 1 C)
* As an added note, you can leave the leaves in the container and reuse them 1 more time.

Perfect tea maker from Teavana

     2.      If you prefer sweet tea, add sugar with the leaves while the water is hot (the sugar melts and is better incorporated into the tea)

3.     Immediately after the hot tea is brewed, pour it into a glass or pitcher filled almost to the top with ice. The sudden cooling keeps the flavor and scent of the tea intact (I had never heard this before, but it makes sense).

If you guys try the tea at one of the stores…this is the process that they used to make it. I used all my investigative powers to get the dirt on this out of them! It's ok...I won't blame you when you want to say explatives in my direction when you get addicted to it!

 

 

Cute tins we bought at the store for our tea!